Kenya's Uhuru Kenyatta To Visit South Sudan On Thursday
The Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta is expected in South Sudan on Thursday to discuss vital diplomatic ties with his counterpart and host President Salva Kiir Mayardit. 23 May 2013 South Sudan President Salva Kiir (L) with his Kenyan counterpart Uhuru Kenyatta (R) in Nairobi during the presidential inauguration in April 2013. [PPS File] By Francis Apiliga Lagu This is the very first time Mr. Kenyatta is visiting South Sudan as president of Kenya. “President Kenyatta will be in South Sudan briefly to discuss bilateral issues with Kiir before heading to Addis Ababa for the African Union meeting,” Dr. Barnaba Benjamin Marial told Radio Miraya. “President Kiir has urged all of us to welcome Kenyatta and give him a good reception,” Dr Marial added. Kenya, the largest East African economy is also politically a very important country to South Sudan because it played a crucial role in hosting the peace accords especially the Naivasha one (Comprehensive Peace Agreement) in 2005 that ended the over two decades of civil war between the mainly Christian south and the successive Islamic Khartoum regimes. South Sudan lost nearly two million in the liberation struggle and nearly four million people were displaced. On Monday, the Acting National Minister for Labour, Public Service and Human Resource Development, Mr Kwong Danhier Gatluak, hailed the good relations between the Republic of Kenya and the Republic of South Sudan. Hon Kwong said Kenya had not only played a crucial role in the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement which resulted in independence for South Sudan but had continued to support human capacity development in the country through various forms of technical assistance. The Deputy Minister said South Sudan had benefited from the Kenya Technical Assistance Programme and the RSS/Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Capacity Enhancement Initiative in which Kenya was a critical contributor of skilled manpower alongside Uganda and Ethiopia. Hon Kwong was speaking at the Juba International Airport when he led a high-powered government delegation to bid farewell to 42 Civil Service Support Officers (CSSOs) who have completed their two-year tour of duty in South Sudan under the RSS/IGAD Project. He said a good number of the CSSOs were medical doctors and nurses who were attached to various government hospitals in the states, adding that they had done a good job there. Among those who accompanied the Minister to see off the CSSOs were the UNDP Country Director, Mr Balazs Hovarth, the Kenyan Ambassador in South Sudan, Mr Cleland Leshore, the Coordinator of the Kenya South Sudan Liaison Office, Mr Maurice Nyamunga and the Public Service Undersecretary, Mrs Angeth Acol de Dut. Posted in: Home, Foreign Relations -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "South Sudan Info - The Kob" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/SouthSudanKob/CAJb14or2Lic4EcMWowbJLSDMjXGThbxQfLLmLcc9rynB6N4zsg%40mail.gmail.com?hl=en-US. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
